Chapter 6: The Demon Domain
The following morning, Seth woke up not feeling very refreshed in the least. He had been tossing and turning in bed all night, barely managing to get any sleep. The face of his digital alarm clock showed that the time was 7:12. Knowing that his life depended on him not abandoning his duty, Seth slunk out of his bed, feeling both groggy and tense.
After freshening up in the bathroom and putting on a new change of clothes, Seth found his way to the dining room, where the rest of his family was eating breakfast. Also at the table were Bright and Bracken. As he approached the table, everybody wished him a good morning.
"Well, this is it," said Bracken, who then proceeded to take a bite out of a piece of jam-coated toast.
"Seth, you look miserable," said Mrs. Sorenson, as she placed a mug of hot chocolate down in front of her son.
"Can you blame him?" asked Grandma.
"Look at the bags under his eyes," said Kendra, who was able to tell that Seth had not slept well in the least.
"Guys, I really don't need any criticism," said Seth, as he took a sip of his hot chocolate. Normally, Seth enjoyed the hot chocolate that was made from Viola's milk, but today, he could barely taste it.
"We made you a hearty breakfast," said Dale, as he placed a plate down in front of Seth. On the plate were two large sausages, a poached egg and hash browns.
"Thanks," said Seth, as he reached for a bottle of ketchup, then proceeded to start eating his breakfast. Although he normally appreciated his family's cooking, he was not savoring any of the flavor. However, it did succeed in filling his belly.
Once breakfast was finished and everyone had washed up, they all went outside and gathered around in a spot on the front lawn. Seth and Warren were both carrying their bags of travel gear. Looking over at Warren, Seth got the impression that he was not intimidated in the least.
"Well, if you guys are ready," said Bright, "we can open a portal right here and be on our way."
"I really don't like the idea of you fairies opening a portal to the Demon Domain right here at Fablehaven," said Grandma.
"I don't like the idea of them opening one of those portals anywhere," noted Grandpa. "What if creatures from that world start coming through?"
"We can close the portal from the other side the moment we all pass through," said Bracken. "I can't see how any monsters will have the time to slip through the portal in the short time we keep it open."
"Please be careful," said Mrs. Sorenson, giving Seth a hug. In acceptance, Seth hugged her back.
The rest of the family then wished the group the best of luck and said their goodbyes.
Bright took in a deep breath, then held her hands up in front of herself. She closed her eyes, prompting a ball of glowing white light to appear within her hands. The ball flew about two feet away from her, then suddenly expanded into a swirling vortex, roughly seven feet in diameter.
"This is it," said Bright. "If my intuition is correct, then I have successfully conjured up a portal to the Demon Domain."
"Well, come on," said Warren. "The less we leave that portal open, the better."
"I'll go first," said Bracken, stepping into the portal. As his body passed through into the light, it appeared to vanish from sight.
"Here goes," said Warren, following Bracken through the portal.
"I can do this," said Seth, as he walked right up to the portal. He then took a deep breath and took one great step into the mysterious vortex.
The moment Seth made contact with the portal, he passed right through it. Rather than remaining back at Fablehaven, Seth had now stepped into a world entirely new to him. He, Bracken and Warren were no longer standing on grass, but rather a rocky plateau. The sky above them was not blue with white clouds, but instead red, streaked with smokey grey clouds.
"So this is the Demon Domain?" asked Seth, as Bright stepped through the portal.
"Supposedly," replied Bracken, as Bright used her magic to quickly dispel the portal behind them.
"Doesn't seem too pleasant now, does it?" said Warren, observing the scenery around him. Seth continued to look around. There was almost no plant life, save for a few scraggly trees with spike-like branches and hardly any leaves. And what few leaves there were, all appeared to be dried up and dying.
"I feel... weird," said Bracken, placing a hand onto his forehead.
"That must the influence of the Demon Domain," said Bright, nodding in agreement. "Us fairies are highly susceptible to it. We'd be more powerful in our unicorn forms, so let's transform."
"We need to be careful," said Bracken, as his body shape-shifted from that of a fairy into his silvery-white unicorn form. Likewise, Bright had transformed into a white unicorn with a rainbow mane and tail.
"Are you two feeling okay?" asked Warren.
"A bit better," replied Bright. "For now. Get onto our backs and we'll give you a ride."
"But we can't stay here for too long," said Bracken, as Seth climbed up onto his back. "If we succumb to the negative energies of the Demon Domain, we'll become too weak to open a portal back to the mortal world. And there's no guarantee that the Translocator will work in here."
"But how will you know when that'll be?" asked Warren, who had mounted himself upon Bright's back.
"We're just going to have to trust our guts on this."
Seth braced his hands upon Bracken's neck, his fingers sifting through the hairs of the unicorn's mane. He gazed around at his surroundings, but could see nothing beyond acres and acres of dank, rugged and gnarled terrain and mountains in the distance.
"Where do we go from here?" asked Seth. "How do we find Murdred?"
"We have no leads," said Bright. "We could try homing in on him with our power, but with so much darkness flowing throughout the land, I don't know how we'd ever pinpoint him."
"We need to at least try," said Bracken. "Maybe we could try to pinpoint where the greatest concentration of darkness is emitting from, and follow its path."
Glowing auras of rainbow energy appeared around Bright and Bracken's horns, and the two unicorns began gazing around.
"Find anything?" asked Warren.
The was a brief pause. "No," replied Bright, who continued looking around.
"Either Murdred's too far away, or there's too much interference," said Bracken, as he and Bright disabled the magic that was coming from their horns.
"Great," said Seth. "We're in some strange world looking for somebody, and we don't even know where to find him."
"We might as well just start exploring and see what we can find," said Warren.
"We'd better not fly," said Bracken. "Not only could it give us away, but it in this world, it would also drain our energy at a faster rate."
With Seth and Warren holding onto them firmly, Bracken and Bright began to take off in one direction. As the unicorns galloped across the Demon Domain, they saw little beyond what appeared to be jagged rock formations, dying plants of indeterminable breeds and pits in the ground. Scattered across the land were piles of large, monstrous bones, easily large enough to rival the dinosaur bones on display at a museum.
"What if I gave that detection thing a try?" asked Seth. "I've been able to use it to find fairy energy in the past. Maybe I can use it to find Murdred."
"I wouldn't count on it," said Bright. "Trying to find Murdred in the Demon Domain would be like trying to find a needle in haystack."
"More like finding a particular needle in needlestack," said Warren, "if the sheer vastness of this place is anything to go by."
"It's hopeless," said Seth. "Part of me just wants to go back to the Singing Sisters and let them take my life."
"Don't say that," said Bracken.
"Why not?" asked Seth. "This quest is impossible. The fairies at home hate me. My darkness is getting... well... darker. Even if I somehow do succeed, there's nothing that can be done to fix my current situation."
Soon they came upon a a rocky wall with a crevice wide enough for the two unicorns to pass through. The crevice was not very deep, and they soon emerged out on the other side.
At that moment, two figures jumped down from the wall behind the group and landed in front of them.
"What the-" gasped Bright.
Seth took a moment to study the two creatures. One of them best resembled a brown, twenty-foot, serpentine monster that had four limbs with pincers on each one. The other one slightly reminded Seth of what Bigfoot allegedly looked like, standing a good ten feet tall with olive fur. Both monsters possessed long, sharp fangs, and in the case of Bigfoot, hook-like nails.
"Who are these weirdos?" asked the serpentine monster.
"Two humans riding on... are those unicorns?" asked Bigfoot.
"Where is Murdred?" asked Seth.
"Why do you wish to know?" asked the serpent. "And how are you fluent in our tongue?"
"It's a lot to explain."
"Seth can understand them," said Bracken, who sounded confused.
"For a human, I can sense great darkness coming from this one," said Bigfoot, pointing at Seth.
"What's with the unicorns?" asked the serpent. "Why are you riding one? What are you doing here?"
"I want to see Murdred. Where can I find him?"
"Murdred might be interested in you," said Bigfoot. "But first, we must eliminate those unicorns!"
"Oh no," said Seth. "Back off."
"Seth, what's going on?" asked Bracken, as the two monsters slowly approached him and Bright, claws and pincers raised above their heads.
"THEY WANT TO KILL YOU!" blared Seth, as Bigfoot lunged at Bracken, who quickly leapt out of the way. Likewise, the upright serpent tried to pounce towards Bright.
"Come on!" exclaimed Warren, as he unsheathed the sword from the scabbard on his back. "Use Vasilis!"
Following Warren's lead, Seth drew Vasilis from his scabbard, and flailed it around in the air.
"It's not working!" cried Seth, as Bracken trotted around the area, trying to avoid getting assaulted by Bigfoot. Try as he might, Seth seemed to be unable to get Vasilis to flare up like it normally did when he needed it to. "Something's wrong!"
"I don't know!" exclaimed Warren, as Bright danced around to avoid getting crushed by the serpent's pincers. "Use it like a normal sword!"
"Come on, Seth," said Bracken. "I'll jab him with my horn, you use Vasilis."
"Easier said than done," said Seth, as Bracken kept backing away from Bigfoot each time the monster swiped in their direction with his massive claws.
"Take that!" snapped Warren. Seth looked over towards Warren and saw that he had successfully sliced off one of the serpent's arms with his sword while riding Bright. The bleeding serpent was writhing in agony.
"Take THIS!" snarled Bigfoot, as he dove directly at Bracken. The impact from the massive monster knocked Bracken off of his hooves, which caused Seth to fall down off of Bracken, dropping Vasilis. Seth and Bracken were now laying on the ground, and had already taken a fair beating.
"Oww," moaned Seth, as he felt the scrapes he had just acquired from falling onto the rough ground. Bracken's legs also appeared to be scraped up a fair bit.
"Got you!" roared Bigfoot, as he stomped right up towards Seth, lifted him off of the ground and hoisted him up into the air. Unable to move, Warren and Bright both yelled at Bigfoot, demanding for him to put Seth down.
Warren removed his sword from the head of the freshly-slayed serpent, and turned to face Bigfoot.
"Come any closer and I'll get rough with this one," hissed Bigfoot, even though Warren and the others were unable to understand him.
"Warren, don't!" cried Seth.
At that moment, Bigfoot screamed in pain, prompting him to drop Seth down to the ground. Ignoring the impact, Seth looked up and saw a beam of rainbow energy spiraling out of Bracken's horn and into Bigfoot.
"The light!" roared Bigfoot, raising his arms in an attempt to shield himself.
Bright then unleashed a spiraling beam of rainbow energy from her horn towards Bigfoot, prompting the monster to scream even more.
"You'll regret this!" snarled Bigfoot, as he scampered away from the group. Once he was out of range, Bracken and Bright ceased their energy beams. Bigfoot then leapt onto a boulder in the distance and was soon out of sight.
"That was incredible!" laughed Seth. "You two should've just done that from the start!"
"It may have worked," said Bright, walking over towards Seth and Bracken, "but that took a lot out of us. Especially in this world."
"We don't have the endurance in us to take on any and all of the monsters we may come across here," said Bracken.
Seth looked at his swollen hands, and could feel the bruises he had gained from falling on his arms and legs. Bracken appeared to be scraped up, and Warren's shoulder had apparently been sliced open by the serpent.
"We're a mess," said Seth, as he reached into his pouch and pulled out the Sands of Sanctity. He proceeded to tip artifact's tail-like spout onto his wounds, but no sand managed to come out.
"What's wrong, Seth?" asked Bracken.
"Something's wrong. The Sands of Sanctity isn't working. It feels... empty."
"That can't be," said Bright, bending her head down to touch the artifact with the tip of her horn. "It must be an effect of the Demon Domain. If I can't restore its powers, no one can."
"No one is right," said Seth, who still failed to pour any sand out of the teapot.
"Get the healing potions," said Bracken, prompting Seth to reach into his bag again and remove several small vials filled with pink liquids.
"Maybe we should save these," said Seth, passing a vial to Warren. "We don't have too many. Maybe we should go home and heal there."
"You saw the direction that monster ran off," said Warren, popping the cork out of his vial. "Maybe he went towards Murdred. If we leave now, we'll have no surefire way of getting back to this point. We'll be back where we started."
Seth proceeded to pour one of the vials down Bracken's open mouth. "I hope you guys are all right. What if more monsters come after us?"
"If we don't press on, we'll never move forward," said Bracken, standing back up onto his hooves. "I'm feeling better now thanks to the potion."
"Question," said Seth. "If we were to leave through a portal right here and right now, why can't we just return to this same point?"
"We can't control where in the Demon Domain a portal might lead to," said Bright. "Going home is a different story, but if we open another portal back to the Demon Domain, who knows where we'll wind up if we pass through it."
"The only way to do this," said Bracken, "would be to enter the Demon Domain, find and defeat Murdred, and get out, all in one visit."
"Can you guys even keep going?" asked Warren.
"Hopefully," answered Bright. "Even though we have potions that can heal wounds, we have no way of restoring our light energy within this world."
"Our light energy will slowly decrease the longer we stay here," said Bracken. "Using our power against that monster only helped in depleting it."
"There they are!" came a voice.
Seth and the others all looked in the direction that the voice had come from. It was the same direction that Bigfoot had run off in. Perched up on a distant boulder were three figures.
"What're those?" asked Seth.
"I don't know," replied Bracken. "But I'm sure they're trouble."
The three figures leapt down from the boulder, bent down on all fours, and proceeded to run towards the group.
"Brace yourself," said Warren, wielding his sword. Likewise, Seth did the same with Vasilis.
One the figures got close enough, Seth could see that they were vaguely humanoid, but sported fur and wolf-like heads. Although they had similar builds, one had red fur, one was blue, while the other was green.
"What have we here?" asked the red figure, as he and the other two stood up on their hind legs, only a few yards away from the group.
"We can understand you?" asked Warren.
"Who are you guys?" asked Seth.
"We're adlets," replied the blue one. "And we heard that there was an unusual presence in the area!" He sniffed the air around himself, then looked at Seth. "What is a dark one like yourself doing with these... unicorns?"
"You're coming with us," said the green one.
Warren charged towards the adlets with his sword, only for the blue and green ones to charge towards him in unison, knocking him onto his back.
"Don't get any ideas," said the red adlet, as Seth aimed Vasilis towards the trio. "What we did to him we can do to you."
"Enough!" neighed Bracken, as he shot a spiraling blast of rainbow energy at the red adlet, causing him to roar in pain.
Bright proceeded to blast the green adlet with her own energy beam, irritating him in the same manner as Bracken did to the red one.
A moment later, Bracken and Bright cut their energy beams. The two unicorns both appeared to be weary, as did the red and green adlets.
"We can't keep this up," said Bright between breaths.
The blue adlet then walked up towards Seth. Although not nearly as tall as Bigfoot, the monster loomed over Seth. Seth swiped at the adlet with his sword, but the creature grabbed him by his sword arm before the blade could make contact.
"I got him!" roared the blue adlet, danging Seth in the air by his arm. In all the commotion, Seth lost hold of both Vasilis and his pouch.
"Put him down!" said Warren, back on his feet with his sword in position.
"Those unicorns are tough," said the red adlet, wiping his brow.
"We got what we came for," said the green one. "Let's just get out of here!"
The blue adlet proceeded to run off on three limbs, holding Seth off the ground with the fourth. The red and green adlets followed.
"Let me go!" screamed Seth, struggling to get out of the adlet's grasp. He looked back at his friends. Bright and Bracken looked too bushed to give chase, while Warren couldn't possibly keep up with the adlets' speed. This was it. After spending no more than twenty minutes in the Demon Domain, Seth had already been captured.